1 THE WINSTON CHURCHILL MEMORIAL TRUST AUSTRALIA REPORT BY ALEX KELLY

44 Pages·2013·1.15 MB·English

by  Alex Kelly

THE WINSTON CHURCHILL MEMORIAL TRUST AUSTRALIA
REPORT BY ALEX KELLY
CHURCHILL FELLOW 2012
Exploring social change documentary film outreach, engagement and impact
campaigns
I understand that the Churchill Trust may publish this report, either in hard copy or on
the Internet or both, and consent to such publication.
I indemnify the Churchill Trust against any loss, costs or damages it may suffer arising
out of any claim or proceedings made against the Trust in respect for arising out of the
publication of any Report submitted to the Trust and which the Trust places on a
website or access over the internet.
I also warrant that my Final Report is original and does not infringe the copyright of any
person, or contain anything which is, or the incorporation of which into the Final Report
is, actionable for defamation, a breach of any privacy law or obligation, breach of
confidence, contempt of court, passing off or contravention of any other private right or
of any law.
DATE 7th November 2013

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INDEX
GLOSSARY...............................................................................................................................................................3

INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................................................................4

SPECIAL THANKS................................................................................................................................................6

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY....................................................................................................................................6

Program.......................................................................................................................................................................7

Highlights....................................................................................................................................................................8

Dissemination of Learnings...............................................................................................................................8

Presentations to Date...........................................................................................................................................8

Background on BighART....................................................................................................................................9

Spirit of the Company........................................................................................................................................10

Research Approach for my Churchill Fellowship................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................................13

STORY SHAPES OUR WORLD.................................................................................................................14

AFTER THE LIGHTS COME UP.................................................................................................................15

SOCIAL CHANGE FILM..................................................................................................................................16

WHAT IS IMPACT?............................................................................................................................................16

ASSESSING IMPACT.......................................................................................................................................17

HOW DOES CHANGE HAPPEN?.............................................................................................................19

Blog Case Study 1: Invisible War...........................................................................................................21

BATTLE OF THE STORY – MAKING CULTURAL SHIFTS.........................................................23

Blog Case Study 2: Story Based Strategy Advanced Training Blog:..................................25

Blog Case Study 3: Films That Change The Climate..................................................................27

IMPACT PRODUCING.....................................................................................................................................31

THINKING ABOUT AUDIENCE IN THE CONTEXT OF HOW SOCIAL CHANGE
HAPPENS................................................................................................................................................................33

CHANGING MEDIA LANDSCAPE.............................................................................................................34

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS...................................................................................35

REFLECTIONS.....................................................................................................................................................36

APPENDIX A: PEOPLE MET........................................................................................................................38

APPENDIX B - FILMS VIEWED..................................................................................................................40

APPENDIX C KEY ORGANISATIONAL PROFILES........................................................................42

APPENDIX D BIG HART LINKS..................................................................................................................43

APPENDIX E INTRODUCTION TO EVALUATORS AND FUNDERS....................................44

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GLOSSARY
Impact creating a a marked effect or influence on someone or something.
Impact Space the emerging sector of the film industry engaging in the practice of
creating social impact and social change with film.
Impact producer devises and executes a strategic campaign, including distribution,
communications, outreach, engagement and marketing to maximise the impact of a
film.
Social change significant alteration over time in behavior patterns, and cultural values
and social norms.
Social change film films which seek to create social change on a particular issue.

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INTRODUCTION
The purpose of my Churchill Fellowship was to look at how documentary filmmakers
and producers in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States are working to
achieve social change impact with their films. I met with a range of people who produce,
fund, partner with or direct films with a focus on social issues and a social change
agenda.
I have had considerable experience in working in the field of advocating for and
achieving social change through my background in media activism and work with
acclaimed arts and social change company Big hART in Australia.
I have a deep and abiding passion and interest in the power of story, arts and media in
encouraging and promoting justice. I was involved in a range of media-activist
organisations in Melbourne in the late 1990s including SKATV’s weekly community
television program Access News and was part of the founding collective of online open
publishing news website Melbourne IndyMedia1. From media activism to work with Big
hART and film projects I have always been inspired by the power of story.
2
Through this fellowship I wanted to explore social change outreach and engagement in
the specific field of documentary filmmaking. I wanted to see the strategies, tools and
methods that were being used elsewhere to maximise the social impact of films that had
at their core the desire to make change.
I wanted to see what lessons and insights I could bring back to Australia to inform
practice here, in documentary filmmaking in particular and in arts and culture practice
more broadly.

1
 Global
 Indymedia
 network
 http://indymedia.org/

2
 Queen
 of
 the
 Desert
 2012
 poster,
 designed
 by
 Josephine
 Wright

http://www.360degreefilms.com.au/queen-­‐of-­‐the-­‐desert

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I also undertook this research to seek out new networks and peers and to be able to
reflect on my own and Big hART’s practice, and to understand where our work sits
globally.

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SPECIAL THANKS

Thank you to everyone I interviewed who was so open with their knowledge and ideas
and particularly to those that shared networks and made introductions. I am grateful to
Andrew Lowenthal and Rebecca Lichtenfeld who were especially generous with their
networks.
And gratitude goes to my wonderful workmates at Big hART for being such a risk-
inclined, values driven and innovative company to work with. I deeply appreciate their
generous support in allowing me to take 3 months’ time out for this Fellowship, and the
scope to bring these ideas home and introduce new ways of working into our structure
and culture.
Thanks to Martha Ansara, OzDox, William Head, Don’t You Have Docs? and Shannon
Owen, VCA for hosting lectures so soon after my return to Australia. This was a great
way to disseminate my ideas and learning and to force me to collate and articulate
them.
A big shout out goes to Rachel Maher, Carol Peterson, Pip Kelly, Amber Hammill and
Rosemary Kelly for their support during the compilation of this report.
And finally massive thanks go to Scott Rankin and Rachel Maher for deep and rigorous
conversations about the practice and philosophy of social change arts and media.
These conversations are critical to my thinking. I value them, and your friendship,
deeply.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Name: Alex Kelly
Position: National Producer Big hART
Phone: [phone]
Project description: Exploring social change documentary film outreach,
engagement and impact campaigns

Documentary films, alongside clever strategies, have an enormous capacity to drive
social change. In this time of global expansion in digital distribution, we are witnessing a
dynamic new approach to documentary filmmaking emerge internationally. It is known
at “impact producing”. This emerging approach is an exciting hybrid of activism,
movement building, community organising, grass roots event management, marketing
and distribution. This emergence is happening in parallel with advances in technology

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that innovate and enable new ways to fund, make, watch and distribute content that
seeks to effect social change.
As the documentary field develops and creates a language and approach for this work,
it is important that we recognise that there are no templates and guarantees to create
tipping points for social change.
Deep and lasting social change is brought about when diverse tactics are used
effectively by a broad coalition of campaigners -- alongside luck and an often-elusive
combination of zeitgeist and timing.
Filmmakers, producers, funders and researchers who are creating and defining this
burgeoning “impact” space benefit from drawing on the wisdom of social movements in
the development of methods and tactics to bring about social change.
This report summarises the research undertaken into the new and emerging “impact”
space and approach in the global documentary film making community. It finds that in
order to reach their goals, filmmakers, storytellers and cultural producers need to
harness their creative and strategic power, learn from -- and collaborate with -- activists
and organisers and think big so their films can be part of creating deep and lasting
social change.
Program
London April 4th – May 2nd 2013
Toronto April 30th – May 6th 2013
New York May 6th – June 2nd 2013
San Francisco June 2nd – June 24th 2013
Hot Docs Film Festival, Toronto
Tara Brach, Radical Acceptance Retreat, Massachusetts
Centre for Story Based Strategy, San Francisco
Full list of interviewees in Appendix A

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Highlights
• Meeting deeply inspiring filmmakers, directors, producers, funding bodies,
community organisers, media activists and impact producers.
• Discovering the newly coined term “impact producer” – producers who oversee the
design and implementation of the outreach and engagement strategy of social
change films.
• Discovering new funding avenues for this kind of filmmaking.
• Exploring new methodologies to measure the impact of film and arts on
communities, audiences and social change.
• Attending the Centre for Story Based Strategy advanced training retreat in
California.
• Affirming the knowledge I already have in impact producing.
• Establishing that Big hART is really at the cutting edge globally of culture lead
social change projects.
Dissemination of Learnings
As I was travelling I produced regular online blog post based on my research, including
interviews and reflections at www.echotango.org/blog. I shared these blog posts with
peers and friends as I was travelling. This served as a great way to document my
research and reflect on the conversations as I was travelling.
Since returning to Australia I have given a number of public presentations and internal
presentations to my colleagues at Big hART. Big hART is integrating some new ideas in
to our practice.
Presentations to Date
While I was on the road I presented a lunch time ‘brown bag’ presentation at Witness,
New York NY May 8th, an overview of the Big hART model to Harmony Institute, New
York NY 20th May and a workshop on Big hART at Centre for Story Based Strategy –
Advanced Training, California June 3rd – 9th

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Since completing my trip I have given the following lectures:
• OzDox “Lights Camera… Action” Sydney July 10th (archived on YouTube at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQm6xw2oO_8).
• Don’t You Have Docs? / VCA Melbourne August 10th “Films with Social Impact”
(archived podcast dontyouhavedocs.com).
• Melbourne International Film Festival “Resistance is Futile? Film and Activism”
panel 31st July.
• Screen Territory lunchtime presentation, Alice Springs, NT 9th August.
• VCA Making Movies Course Film and Activism Lecture Melbourne, VIC 21st
August.
• Griffith University, Queensland lecture 17th October.
• NYU, USA Film students’ guest lecture 18th October.
• Margaret Mead Film Festival, New York, USA 19th October.
I have been invited to contribute a chapter in a forthcoming book “'Film Festival
Activism: Actors, Spectators, Social Change” Monash University 2014.
I am also likely to be presenting some of my findings at the Australian International
Documentary Conference in March 2014.
Background on Big hART
Since 2004 I have worked with Big hART on a number of projects and was Creative
Producer of the award-winning Ngapartji Ngapartji project from 2005-20103.
Big hART is a prolific producer of critically and publicly acclaimed performing, visual,
and media art derived from rigorous, deep and lengthy processes in some of Australia's
most remote, marginal and challenging communities.
This street-smart cultural not-for-profit organization was incorporated in 1996, launched
at Parliament House, Canberra, by then Australian Prime Minister John Howard MP,
enjoys Deductible Gift Recipient status and is the subject of an increasingly large body
of international research and academic evaluation4.

3
 Ngapartji
 Ngapartji

 http://www.ngapartji.org/

4
 Big
 hART
 evaluations
 available
 to
 download
 at
 http://www.bighart.org/public/?p=86

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Big hART is a multidisciplinary and intercultural company specialising in making art with
communities for high profile arts forums and arts festivals.
In 2013 Big hART celebrates 21 years of highly-awarded internationally-acknowledged
best practice in the field of community building and effecting social change through the
arts.
Big hART achieves arts-driven social change, through unique bespoke approaches to
community diplomacy that involves non-welfare arts-based community development
projects that take place over a minimum of 150 weeks, involving investigations into
areas such as justice, democracy, cultural identity and social inclusion.
Excellent outcomes have been generated from this participatory art practice in a variety
of communities, through ongoing social policy engagement, leveraging sustained
change, engaged communities and making powerful art.
The art made, the skills and participation involved, and the narratives it highlights, focus
new forms of attention on the identity of a local community, which is then presented
intelligently in national forums, with local participation, often transforming the
community's narrative and creating deeply authentic and critically acclaimed work. The
profile of this work is then used to achieve lasting legislative and policy change
pertaining to the aspirations of the community in which the work was created.
Spirit of the Company
Rising out of the economic rubble of Burnie - a mill town in its death-throws in 1992, on
the North West Coast of Tasmania - the spirit of the company has always been one of
tenacity and never say never. Against a backdrop of cultural isolation, rural
disadvantage, invisibility in the arts, increased travel and transport costs and an
underlying disbelief that anything culturally interesting could come from there, the
company has grown exponentially, breaking through all the barriers to become one of
Tasmania's largest cultural and intellectual exports.
Having expanded nationally to work in 45 communities, with over 8,000 participants, Big
hART is company in residence at the Canberra Theatre Centre (2012-2015) - giving it
access to federal politicians and decision makers in Australia’s national capital and is
currently negotiating an international co-operative residency in London, United
Kingdom.

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